


Dressing Up

by lotsofthinkythoughts (Mianna)



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-12
Updated: 2014-03-12
Packaged: 2018-01-14 21:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1279657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mianna/pseuds/lotsofthinkythoughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Rose get ready for a party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dressing Up

Fairy lights sparkled in the dark garden of the palace. The TARDIS, hidden in a shadowed gully just beyond the reach of the light, slowly opened to reveal the Doctor’s face. His brow furrowed and he disappeared back into the TARDIS quickly.

“Rose! We’re going to a party. Wardrobe room, come on.” He said, steering her away from the ramp as he came back up it, before taking her hand and pulling her along behind him.

Fifteen minutes later, Rose was looking through a rack of evening dresses while the Doctor sat on a padded bench behind her.

“So, why are we here exactly?” She asked, flicking through the rack with a quick motion borne of years of retail service.

The Doctor looked up from his seat where he was cobbling together some sort of detection device using the sonic screwdriver and the battery pack from her cellphone. (She hadn’t realized he still had that until he pulled it out of his pocket. She had asked why he kept it, but he’d not answered.)

“You said you wanted to go to a party. The Ambassador’s Gala is the biggest party in this galaxy. The celebration of the most comprehensive peace treaty in the history of the system.” He paused and continued his work with the sonic before picking back up. “Of course, the treaty falls apart in a century or so when the power shifts on Altha Novis, but –“

Rose smiled to herself and shook her head slightly as she pulled out a gown.

“If it was just a party, you wouldn’t be turning my phone battery into a thingamajig.”

“It isn’t a thingamajig, Rose. It’s a short range electro-temporal signature detector. It will find any non-contemporary temporal signatures within 20 yards. I’m keying it to ignore us, obviously.”

“My point is that if you were just taking me to a party, you wouldn’t be making that.” She said matter-of-factly, as she held the midnight blue satin against her. It was a pretty dress, but she wasn’t sure it’d be appropriate for the planet or the time.

“What about this?” She asked, turning to face him with the dress still held against her front.

“It’s fine.” The Doctor answered without looking up. “And, alright, it was meant to be just a party, but when I looked outside the TARDIS earlier, I could sense an anomaly. Could just be a tourist or historian; by the 51st century Vortex manipulators are fairly common if you have enough money.” With a final buzz and whir, the Doctor held up the battery pack for inspection and tucked his sonic away in the breast pocket of his jacket. “But still, it’s better to be safe.”

There was a long pause while the Doctor looked over his work before Rose spoke again.

“Doctor.” Her tone was rather exasperated.

“Hmm?”

“You didn’t even look at the dress.”

“I’m sure it’s fine, Rose. Besides, I thought you liked me to be surprised when you dressed up.”

“I do. But I’m asking because I’ve never been to this planet, and I don’t know what year it is. All I know is apparently we’re going to a fancy party on a foreign planet in the future. I don’t know what kind of dresses are right.”

Finally the Doctor looked up at the dress Rose held. It was strapless, with tiny crystals sewn into the bodice and a fluttery multilayered skirt that ended around her knees. It would be a looser fit than was common on this planet, but it would still be acceptable.

“A bit retro for them. Classic retro though.”

Rose nodded and smiled, slinging the dress around so that her wrist rested on her shoulder as she held the hanger behind her back.

“Thanks. Give me an hour to get ready, yeah?”

She didn’t wait for a response before she headed out for her bedroom, her trainers making a dull thumping noise against the grating of the corridors. She’d just closed the door behind her when the Doctor stuck his head in the room.

“Silver jewelry, and wear your hair up.”

Before she could ask why, he’d disappeared, closing the door behind him.

* * *

 

An hour and fifteen minutes later, the Doctor sat flipping the sonic screwdriver in his hand, waiting. He heard the click of Rose’s heels against the floor before he saw her, and when she turned the corner into the console room, he jumped up

She’d taken his advice, and was wearing silver hoops in her ears and a simple necklace around her throat, with her hair tucked into an updo. He hadn’t said why, and he rather hoped she didn’t ask, because he didn’t particularly want to explain that the combination meant she was married. (He also intentionally tried not to think about how big of a lie that was, and how he wouldn’t necessarily mind if it were true. The marriage thing, not the lie thing, which only went to show how unsuccessful his attempts at not thinking about it were.)

Luckily she didn’t ask.

In fact, she didn’t say anything at all.

“Rose?” He asked, unease and a tinge of worry creeping into his tone as his hand crept to the back of his neck where he fiddle with the ends of his hair.

“You changed your clothes.” She sounded shocked.

“Hmm? Oh, yes. Black tie only as it turns out.” He said, looking down at the tuxedo he was wearing and then back up at her. “What do you think?”

She nodded and gaped for a moment before responding. “’s nice.”

It didn’t escape his notice that her voice had taken on a rather husky quality and that she was still staring.

Of course, he couldn’t say much about that considering the fact his gaze kept flickering between her chest and her legs.

It occurred to him that he should compliment her.

However, it also occurred to him that if he did, he’d probably say something about either her legs or her breasts (or both) and then there would be problems. (Not least of all that he was fairly sure that if he started, he wouldn’t be able to stop and he had quite a few thoughts and fantasies built up about her and various parts of her.)

He swallowed convulsively before speaking.

“You look –“ he waved his hand about as though he was searching for words. “lovely.”

Rose broke into a beaming grin, the megawatt kind that occasionally made his hearts stutter, the kind that he loved to see on her face. He thought about saying more, to see if he could make that grin brighter, but realized that he probably ought to stop before the thoughts that were running through his head were spoken.

“Where’s your phone?”

She swung the bag on her wrist forward and pulled out the requested item. “Here, why?”

“I need it for the detector.” He said by way of explanation, pulling the adapted battery out of his pocket.

“It’s not gonna break my phone is it?”

“Shouldn’t, but you won’t have universal roaming tonight.” He said, taking the phone and removing the override chip he’d used to grant her that ability so that the battery could be slotted back in

He made a mental note to permanently adapt her phone with the sonic before he gave it back.

Rose watched silently as he popped the back of the casing into place. “So, who are we tonight anyway?

“Well, let’s see what the invitation says, shall we?” the Doctor asked as he tucked the phone into his pocket.

Rose’s brow furrowed as he continued to dig in his pocket. “Did you actually get an invitation or are you talking about the psychic paper?”

“What do you think?”

The Doctor brandished his find in front of her nose: a small brown leather wallet.

She laughed and smiled at his expression, batting his hand away.

“In 900 years, you might have gotten an invitation.”

“True.” He conceded. “More fun this way though.”

She shrugged in acknowledgement as he flipped open the psychic paper and looked at it for a moment. When he didn’t say anything, Rose moved around to peer at it from his side.

“Sir Doctor and Dame Rose? Not very original is it?” She teased with that tongue touched grin he loved.

“Might as well make use of them, we did earn them after all. Shall we then, Dame Rose?” He proffered his arm.

She threaded hers through his, and together they walked out of the TARDIS to a rather spectacular party.

(Though in the end, Rose remembered why she seriously considered wearing flats.)  


End file.
